good morning. it is friday july 15th. this is your "am: wake-up call." let's talk about the debt ceiling talks, five straight days of meetings and house leaders are as close to a deal as they were on sunday. so basically this week has been a giant air ball or gutter ball and the u.s. is getting credit warnings from standard & poor's and moody's. so here's the good or not as bad news about it. there is a plan b in the senate. here's what jessica yellin found out. >> now, despite all that, i'm told by my sources there's not a lot of optimism, that this particular negotiating process here at the white house is going to actually end up leading to the real deal, and a lot of effort and attention is now turning to a different process that's happening in the u.s. senate and another alternate deal that's being worked out between the two senate leaders

that could instead end up raising the debt ceiling. >> an optimistic late night view from jessica yellin. today president obama will update the nation with a press conference at 11:00 a.m. eastern time, cnn will carry that live. let's talk about the phone hacking scandal in the united kingdom. it might not be limited to that side of the atlantic. the fbi is now investigating murdoch's news corporation. there's an accusation that his employees may have tried to hack into the phone conversations and voicemails of 9/11 victims and their families. rudy giuliani was mayor of new york during that time. he and murdoch have been friends for a long time, so what does giuliani make of all this? >> intercepting communications like that is a crime, it has to be investigated. i think what there shouldn't be and we've learned recently with a bunch of criminal cases of different kinds, don't rush to judgment, give people a presumption of innocence. i think that just how high up it

goes is a big question and it's one we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions about. >> speaking of hacking, somebody absolutely plundered the pentagon in the spring, it was one of the worst breaches ever of security. listen to these details. >> indeed, in a single intrusion this past march, 24,000 files were taken. >> it was done, we think, by a foreign intelligence service, in other words, a nation state was behind it. >> now, those files belonged to a u.s. defense contractor, that's 24,000 good reasons why the defense department is looking at tightening up its cyber security. casey anthony leaves jail in two more days, just in time to face a defamation lawsuit. anthony told police that she had a nanny back when the search was getting under way. the woman's lawyers want anthony to sit down for a deposition tuesday. they think it's the only chance they'll get before she bolts orlando and maybe florida.

anthony's lawyers say no way, that is too soon after a gruelling trial and she'll plead the fifth if asked questions. governor jerry brown has signed a bill in california that requires public schools to teach students about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender americans. state senator mark leno is the one who put the bill together. >> the fact is, we have been censoring a very important chapter of civil rights history about a community that has been traditionally demonized and discriminated against. >> the law takes effect in january, but it takes time to update those textbooks, so that probably won't happen until 2015. and if you're going to the airport later on, you're already dreading the tsa tango, relief might be on the way for you. the tsa will test a trusted traveller program. it will let certain frequent flyers at certain airports skip the full body imaging and basically get them through the security faster.

the only catch is that they will have to give the tsa extra information about themselves ahead of time. this trial run begins this fall in atlanta, detroit, dallas and miami on certain delta and american airlines flights. right now, the nikkei is up, but all others, the hang seng, the dax, the ftse 100 all lower at this hour. let's go to hong kong, asian and european stocks seem to be reacting to a combination of economic news, including what's happening here in the united states. >> let's fine out why. as you said, european markets are slitding. investors are worried about debt. they are worried about how the u.s. debt talks are in dead lock and stan doord and poo's threatening to cut bond rates. and banks finding out if they're tough enough to take another shock. the stress test results are due out mid-day in new york, as many

as one bank in nine is expected to fail this test. so there is a lot to unnerve global investors on this date. >> let's talk about google. i joined google plus the other day. i didn't have an invitation, i said it on this show. one of our viewers sent me an invitation and i joined. you know how many google plus friends i have? >> you have one, because i just added you into my circle. >> oh, mied gy god, i had nobod my circle. thank you. i'm one of the 10 million-plus people on google plus. what an all-star second quarter that company has had. >> you said it. i mean, google beat the street, up 36% from a year ago. a profit rose as more people are clicking on google's ads. i never click on them, but people do. it's been a busy quarter as well, it spent $900 million on infrastructure, launched its laptop and google offers, google's answer to groupon.

as for its answer to facebook, google plus has gone to 10 million users in two weeks. it's not even open to the masses yet. it's kind of fun. >> now that i have one friend, i probably have a circle. so i bless you for that. great to see you, i will talk to you later on tv and on google plus. let's go to rob marciano live in atlanta. he's not in my circle of trusted friends or whatever they call it, but the day is early yet. good morning. what have we got? >> well, for one thing, you'll always be in my inner circle, regardless of whether it's google or facebook or whatever. a number of storms down across the southeast, in through and building also parts of the plains. if you're traveling to those areas, there will be some issues. but another gorgeous day in the northeast, just beautiful stuff. atlanta, minneapolis, will probably see thunderstorms this afternoon, and high temperatures will be decent, 85 in new york city and 93 degrees expected in memphis, but the heat's going to

be building, and we'll see a heat wave, you know, of pretty decent proportions over the weekend as far north as the canadian border. let's go to ukraine zoo where a two-headed snake seems to be the highlight of this thing. if you can imagine, two heads on one snake body. >> oh! >> now, when one of the heads gets hungry, they sometimes fight over food. but when one head gets the food, the food goes into the same stomach. >> that's a good point. >> the other head says, i'm full, but apparently they have quite an interesting. >> i like the experience of eating. i like it to go through my mouth. that's interesting. it's kind of gross for the morning, i have to tell you, rob. that's kind of -- >> we've shown worse stuff than that. at least we haven't shown them eating rats. >> we'll save that for the next time we talk. we'll check in with rob. big breaking news right now, the chief executive of the news of

the world, of the news corporation newspapers in news international is the name of the company, rebekah brooks has resigned. this is a message from rebeka brooks, which we're working to confirm, the ceo of news international has said she has resigned because she feels a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt, that's her quote. that's rebekah brooks. she wants to reiterate, she says, how sorry i am for what we know to have taken place. she is resigning as the ceo of news international, which is the parent company of the news corporation newspapers. she's been there for 22 years. she's been under a great deal of pressure. she was one of the three people who has been subpoenaed to british parliament to testify. she is the one, she's a british citizen, so she is compelled to go, although we do have news this morning that both rupert murdoch and his son, while rupert murdoch is not a british citizen, will in fact testify before parliament. there she is, rebekah brooks,

being supported by rupert murdoch, she has offered her resignation and has left the company. can you guess which newsmaker made this statement about media mogul rupert murdoch and the news of the world's alleged hacking of 9/11 victims here in the united states? quote, he is a very honorable, honest man. this can't be something that he would have had anything to do with. we'll tell you who said it right after this quick break. nine minutes after the hour. [ man ] they said i couldn't win a fight. but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. ♪ sometimes when we touch

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12 minutes after the hour. before the break, we asked you if you could guess who called rupert murdoch an honorable and honest man. here is former new york mayor rudy giuliani. >> are you confident enough in him? >> oh, gosh yeah. he's a very honorable, honest man. this can't be something he would have anything to do with. the fact is that they're doing it is a bad thing, it shouldn't be done. i don't know what it is in

england but in the united states it's a felony, and i've prosecuted people for that. >> murdoch and